A few months ago we wrote about a wild turkey roaming around West Philly streets, which caused a massive response from our readers and the story even got picked up by citywide media. The West Philly turkey became famous and started its own Twitter account.

While sightings of wild critters around here are not that rare, with periodic accounts of raccoons or opossums in folks’ backyards or near garbage containers, we haven’t heard a lot of stories about groundhogs in the hood. A neighbor, Bill, who lives near 49th and Springfield, spotted this cute fella earlier today after his dog, Oliver, chased it up on the fence in his backyard. Bill’s daughter Margie snapped the photo below. Bill, thanks again to Oliver, was one of the first neighbors who spotted the West Philly turkey.

Photo by Margie Sanderson.

Photo by West Philly Local reader Joel DeGrands.

Many residents who live near 46th and Spruce streets were awoken this morning by a car crash and witnessed a flipped SUV lying on its side in the middle of 46th Street and the driver talking to police. Reportedly, the car hit two others in the crash and a total of four cars were damaged. The accident happened shortly after 7 a.m. We’re trying to get more information and hope that no one was injured.

Come this fall, Mighty Writers will ink its missive on the streets of West Philly.

The beloved Philly nonprofit dedicated to teaching Philadelphia’s youth to think and write with clarity will open its third location, Mighty Writers West, housed in People’s Emergency Center at 3861 Lancaster Avenue. Fall programs will launch September 16, and former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Annette John-Hall will serve as Mighty Writers West program director.

This is a new Mighty Writers site in West Philly. They are looking for someone who can replace the words “Make Your Mark” with “Mighty Writers.” (Photo via Mighty Writers’ Facebook page).

“We’re excited because the kids and volunteers we meet in West Philly will define the flavor of Mighty Writers West,” Maggie Leyman, Mighty Writers’ development director, told West Philly Local.  “We’ll incorporate a lot of what we’ve learned in South Philly, but we can’t wait to learn what gets West Philly kids excited, and what gets them writing.”

According to Leyman,opening locations in the North, South and West locations of Philadelphia was Mighty Writers’ intention from the start, as the non-profit’s “honing in on three neighborhoods” it sees as underserved and “reasonably far apart.” In West Philadelphia, she said, Mighty Writers will be able to reach those kids who have traveled to the South Philadelphia location for past workshops, as well as kids who wouldn’t travel to either location, but are interested in its programs. Still, the non-profit does understand that the entire city “needs more accessible and free out-of-school programs.”

“Our executive director, Tim Whitaker, always says that you could put a Mighty Writers, or pretty much any writing program, every ten blocks and you’d see programs filled to capacity,” Leyman told West Philly Local. “The whole city is underserved, as far as kids’ educations are concerned. We wish we could put a Mighty Writers in even more Philly communities but that would take some serious funding.”

Mighty Writers will host an open house at the new location in early September “to welcome people into Mighty Writers West so they can sign up for programs, meet our staff and volunteers, and see what we’re all about,” said Leyman.

Mighty Writers West is also currently accepting applications for its afterschool program for students in grades 5-8 residing or going to school in one of the following ZIP codes: 19104, 19131, 19139 or 19143. For more info and to download an application, click here. Application deadline is August 15, 2013.

–Annamarya Scaccia

63-year-old Robert Jean-Louis who suffers from dementia and who went missing on Tuesday morning, has been found, according to a neighbor who knows his family.

Mr. Jean-Louis was found by the police on Wednesday night at about 10:30 p.m. and taken to the hospital where he later was reunited with his family. Many thanks to everyone who shared the alert about him and who helped look for him.

SEPTA announced today that the trolley tunnel to and from Center City will be closed from 10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2 until midnight on Monday Aug. 12. The 11, 13, 34 and 36 trollies will reroute to 40th and Market Streets where passengers can connect with the Market-Frankford Line, which will not be impacted by the tunnel work.

Shuttle buses that are currently being used along the Route 10 line will run to 40th and Filbert Streets during the repairs instead of 33rd and Market.

SEPTA crews will spend that week replacing overhead wire and doing ceiling work in the tunnel, according to a statement.

“We use the tunnel almost 24 hours a day, which means we have very limited opportunities to obtain track outages for extensive repair work,” SEPTA’s deputy general manager Jeff Knueppel said.

Editor’s Note: The trolley tunnel shutdown starts at 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2., not at 10 a.m. as originally stated in the post.

Public help is sought in locating 63-year-old Robert Jean-Louis (pictured) who has been missing since 8 a.m. Tuesday (July 23) morning. He was last seen on 50th street between Warrington and Springfield. He is approximately 150lb, 6’2”. He has dementia and currently does not have any ID on him. He is wearing a white striped button down shirt, navy blue khaki pants, black dress shoes, and has olive green carry-on luggage. He speaks Creole.

Please call his family at 267-808-4714 or 215-910-9415 with any information. Police have been notified too so you can call them if you see him.